Saussure e il disordine della langue

Abstract

Saussure's arbitrariness is oft an opaque concept. On the one hand, it pushes away every form of naturalistic law, because the bond between the signifie and the signified is built by an human agency. On the other hand, this human agency is not a conventionalistic action, because the union of the signifie and the signified is not a free choice neither of a single person nor of common will. So, how can we use this problematic notion? In this paper, I suggest reinterpreting Saussure's arbitrariness for a such form of disorder. Complexity's epistemology has elaborated a theory which assumes that patterns have a dynamic collapsing into disorder, constructing or recombining an order. And this is possible because the disorder gives to the system freedom and space for changes. Saussurian's langue as a pattern has this kind of dynamic. Saussurean arbitrariness is a total disorder and the langue as a system tries to slow down this pattern's inclination to disorder. Langue's order is an attempt of escape from natural language's disorder. The work of the speakers is constructing an order or recombining it using creativity. In fact, the disorder's space of the arbitrariness allows speakers to use creativity to alter the pattern.